Tractor.



E. 1. FAHNUM.

TRACTOR.

APPLICATION FILED MARZS, 1919.

1,326,397. Patented Deo. 30, 1919.

2 SHEETS-SHEET llllllllllllllly Illllllllllllll E. J. FARNUIVI.

TRACTOR.

AffPLlcAnoN FILED 1v1/1.28, 191s. A13269'7" Patented Dec. 30,1919. Y 2SHEETS-SHEET 2.

J7 AW s EDWARD J. FARNUM, FOX LAKE, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR OFONE-HALF TWILLIAM G.

NAGLE, 0F IliOXl LAKE, ILLINOIS.

TRACTOR.

' Specication of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 3Q, 1919.

Application filed March 28, 1919. Serial No. 285,710.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, EDWARD J. FARNUM, v a citizen of the United States,residing at4 the village of FOX Lake, Lake county, Illi-v nois, haveinvented ycertain new and useful Improvements in Tractors, of which thefollowing is a specification.

My invention relates to tractors, with more particular reference todriving mechanism therefor and to means for adjusting laterally one ofthe front wheels.

rll`he principal objects of these improvev ments are to provide asimple, strong, du-A ra'ble and highly efficient drivin mechanism fortractors and also to provi e a feature of wheel adjustment, valuableparticularly in plow tractors, whereby the tractor as a whole ma bereadily maintained in such a line of travel as to cut substantiallyparallel furrows, rendering the operation of accurate plowing simple andeasy and making such plowing possible to relatively unskilledoperators.l The front wheel travcling in the furrow adjacent to the onebeing cu also finds a more even and regular path, saving power and alsocooperating to maintain the plow at a substantially constant relativeelevation. Other objects and advantages will appear hereinafter.

ln the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification, lhave illustrated these improvements `as applied to a three-wheel tractorof notable utility, and have shown a modified form of the driving gearmechanism. In these ,drawings Figure 'l is a top plan of the tractor;Fig. f2 is a side view thereof; Fig. 3 :is an enlarged fragmentarymedial longitudinal sectional view of the preferred form of drivingmechanism; Fig. 4: is a similar view of a niodiedform of drivingmechanism; and Fig. 5 is a fragmentary medial transverse sectional viewof parts at and near the middle ofthe driving wheel.

My improved tractor includes 'a frame l0 carrying a pair of frontwheelsl'l and l2 supported by an axle 13, i3, the wheels being pivotallymounted at lei and moved.

for steering purposes through the wellknown forni of knuckle l5, crossrod 16 and steering wheel l?. l have not illustrated the steeringmechanism in detail, as such is well-known. The axle 13 has aninterfitting telescopic extension 13 provided with a slot i9accommodating the bolt 20. The

steering rodl has a similar telescopic device comprising a hollow head22 into Which the rod 16a extends loosely, the latter being held rigidlyby the set screw 23.y From this construction it will be clear that the`wheel l1 may be adjusted bodily in lateral directions, the operatorbeing thus enabled to cause this wheel to travel in the furrow adjacentto the one being out, thus attaining .the objects .in this respecthereinabove pointed out.

The driving wheel 25 is medially arranged between the side elements ofthe frame 10, and' is mounted loosely upon the axle, shaft ormandrel-like support 23, which is circular in crosssection where thedriving wheel 25 rotates (see Fig. 5), is enlarged and square in crosssection atiZGa, and is also square in cross section at 26", namely, fromthe part 26a to the end of the shaft. The end 26" is held positively inthe bracket 28 carried by the frame l0, the opposite end of the shaft orsupport 26 being carried by a bracket 29. A collar 30 (Fig. 5) maintainsthe wheel 25 in its desired position on the axle or support 26.

The driving shaft 33 issues from the cngine casing 34 containing aninternal com-r bustion engine (not shown). In my practice lthis is arelatively slow engine developing say 300 revolutions per minute. Thedriving shaft 33 is cut with a longitudinal groove 34. 0n this shaft 33is mounted a tubular gear carrier 35 (see Fig. 5) which gear carrier hasan internal longitudinal rib or spline 36 interltting with the groove34, the" gear'carrier 35 being thus carried positively for rotation bythe shaft 33 while it may be moved longitudinally of the shaft.

The gear carrier 35 carries a pair of beveled gears 37 and 38 adapted tointermesh with the circularl rack Ll() positively carried by the drivingwheel 25 on one side thereof and in concentric arrangement there` with.The square portion of the driving wheel support at 26l is aperturedtransversely to accommodate the gear carrier 35, and this driving wheelsupport or mandrel thus acts as a bearing for the rotating member 35 anda construction is provided whereby the driving shaft 33 is positioned inexact diametric arrangement with respect to the rack 40 and drivingwheel 25,'while maintaining the shaft 33 close to the rack tu, and whileproviding a strong support ,in` driving relation to the or shaft 26,which is well sustained by having its ends supported by theside framesof the machine. rll`his construction provides compactness and strengthand facilitates the employment of simple and highlyv efficient means fordriving the device in either d1- rection.

'llhe gears only one is 37 and 38 are so arranged that in mesh 'with therack 40at a given time, the shifting of the member throwing one of thegears into mesh, and simultaneously throwing the other out of mesh withthe rack 40.

Means for' shifting the gears and gear support comprise the yoke 42carrying ythe pin 48, which pin passes through the eX- tension 44 of thehand lever 45'. rlhis hand lever 45 is provided with a hub or collar at46 which rotates upon a biishino 47 mounted upon the squarepart 26 ofthe shaft or driving wheel support 26. A rack 48 having three notches,well shown in lFig. 2, controls the position of the hand lever 45through the detent 49 which is raised and lowered by .the hand piece 50in a we ll.- lrnown way. When the hand lever 45 is in the relativeposition shown by Fig. 2 the gear 38 is in mesh with the rack 40. When.

the lever 45 is thrown to the other eXtreme of the rack 48 the gear 37is in mesh with therack 40, and when the lever 45 is in the intermediateposition neither of the gears is rack 40.

-'.lurnin now to Fig. 4 the description already-given for the other-figures applies, with the following changes: The driving ears 50 and 51are simultaneously in mesh with the rack 40. These gears are carriedpositively by the driving shaft 52, each oear having a clutch element 53thereon, there being a pair of coperating clutch elements 54 rotatablycarried by the shaft 52. A longitudinal groove 55 is out in the ,shaft52, and there is a rib or spline interfittingwith it carried by theclutch element (the same as the spline 36, Fig. 5) as is well understoodin clutch construction. The yoke 56 has at its ends the collars 57accommodatedloosely in grooves in the clutch element 54, as Well shownin the sectional part of the ligure. It will thus be seen that the twoclutch elements 54 may be shifted as a unitary device so that onedriving clutch element 54 or the other will be in driving engagementwith they adjacent coperating driven clutch element 53, and that thedriv- 'ing gear 50 or 5l will be operative to drive lable to provide adevice having exceedingly few parts and which is of the desiredstrengthand durability.

Various changes andV departures from what is specifically shown anddescribed are contemplated by me as being within the invention ashereinafter claimed.

.l claim: p y

l. 'Driving mechanism for tractors comprising in combination a drivingwheel, a circular toothed rack secured concentric-ally on saiddrivingwheel, a driving shaft dia- -metrically arranged with respect to saidwheel and rack and adjacent to said rack, a pair of driving gearscarried by said shaft, one of said gears being on one side of the centerof said .wheel and rack and the other being on the opposite sidethereof, said gears respectively being adapted to engage said rackoperatively so as to rotate the rack, and being so connected operativelyto said shaft that when eithergear engages the rack operatively theother is out of engagement operatively with the rack, means for throwingeither gear into operative relation tothe rack, a shaft-'like supportfor saiddriving wheel, said wheel support being apertured transverselyfor said shaft and constituting a support for the latter.

2. ln a tractor the combination of a frame, a wheel support crosswisethereof, a driving wheel rotatably mounted on said support, a circulartoothed rack carried concentrically by'said driving wheel, a drivingshaft diametrically arranged with respect to said rack, said wheelsupport being apertured transversely to receive said driving shaft andsupport the same, and a gear on said driving shaft meshing with saidrack.

EDWARD J. FAR-NUM.

